The Sierra Club came to grassroots solutions late last year to begin developing their goals for a 2010 youth-focused civic engagement program.  The Sierra Club is a trusted messenger for the vitally important youth demographic and is focusing some of their program resources on developing a new generation of environmentally-minded voters. Projects like Building Bridges to the Outdoors (BBTO) are engaging youth in the outdoors and helping expose them to our National Park System.  Sierra Student Coalition (SSC), the youth-led chapter of the Sierra Club, is bringing together a broad network of high school and college-aged youth from across the country who are working to protect the environment.  And, as part of its ongoing advocacy initiatives, the Sierra Club is also working hard to recruit and engage young people in advocating for issues that are important to the organization.

The Sierra Club’s 2010 civic engagement program will take their youth-focused initiatives to the next level as they move more resources into registering and turning out young environmental voters.  After building a comprehensive list of universities in the United States, grassroots solutions took an initial look at potential campus registration and turnout goals for Sierra Club.  Our team also reviewed data on non-student universes of potential voters from the youth demographic to determine how best to engage young people who are not easy to find on a campus.